By Popular Request

Well, it was just one comment/request by Sparky; but around here in these non-poker days, that seems huge. I’m supposed to post — like that means much. I do like to write. I have done it in a forum of late that gives me my Jones. Since poker, I’ve had a hard time thinking anything I could say had much originality. That created a path more toward plagiarism than content. Threw in a bit more snarky to try to give some entertainment value.

The other thing has been a health issue. Most of my life it has been minor or at least a controllable process. That’s change this last year. Looking up caused vertigo. Not a biggy; I didn’t look up — problem solved. The doctor cautioned it might be the onset of Ménière’s Disease. Didn’t seem to mean much at the time — note to self: pay better attention.

BTW, Doc had referred me to an ENT who seemed to know less than my doctor did. His diagnose was “Sudden Hearing Loss” which seems like diagnosing that the sky is blue. He was damn good at billing though. When he shoved a tube up my nose to look, that was $400 worth of surgery. Gave me a free sample of Nasonex though.

A few weeks ago, the problem was brought home. I’m in bed watching TV. The TV started rapidly jumping around –left to right to left to etc. I have vertigo — no, I have VERTIGO. I am nauseous — big time. I can’t stand up. I crawl across the bed and across a chair to get to the phone.

I call 911. Hello catch 22. The area has redesigned 911 call centers and I’m talking to the wrong one. She transfers me. Ever call 911? This was my first.

“Hello, I think I might be having a stroke. Please send an ambulance.”

That a pretty straightforward statement, right? Should bring prompt attention with that “golden minutes” business running. Instead, I get 20 questions. Like, “Is there blood in my stool?” WTF! It like filling out that form when you visit a doctor for the first time. Had I been having a heart attack, the blood pressure rise with all this crap would have likely run the mercury through the top of the tube.

Hospital. Different doctor called down to ER. (damn good-looking) By the time they got me there the attack had pretty well passed; I just wanted to nap. ER doctors don’t say much but by morning they let me go. I don’t do waiting well; they probably were happier with my leaving than I was. And the lack of straight answers is what I now see as ER grade — which politicians can only aspire to. I leave with no real idea about what had happened.

Go to my doctor and he’s seen the info and concurs that I have Ménière’s. OK, we now know what it is. Now the bad news. The best treatment is to treat the symptoms. There’s no medicine to cure it. Last choice treatment are low percentage solutions with high percentage failures.

So, I haven’t been the best blogger of late. I have had a second bout with it that wasn’t as intense but lasted longer. When it is over you feel beat up for a while. I’m almost completely deaf in my right ear and the hope is it doesn’t get to the left ear.

That’s the news and rationalization why I haven’t been running my mouth as often as in the past.

I forgot to mention this. I was at the Bellagio last Monday and thought about you. The poker room was spreading a 7 card stud game (don’t remember if it was high-low or not)! The stakes were $50/100 which surprised me — higher than I expected or could afford to play.

A lot of the stud plays at those kinds of levels. I figure the ante on that was probably $15-$20. Makes for a game that is too expensive for most of us. The rep is that it is an old farts game. I guess that table were those of us that’d made it bigger than most. Probably 2K to sit comfortably.